Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment) Share this | Hansard source

The senator ought to understand by now that just because you have a whole lot of regulation or indeed a whole lot of expenditure it does not necessarily mean that you are going to get a good outcome. The Greens have been tying up our nation time and time again with all this green tape, and that has perverse environmental outcomes. The biggest example of that is the carbon tax, which saw manufacturing leave this country to go to China and other places where the emissions are greater than they would have been had they remained in Australia in a pre-carbon tax environment. Green tape does not necessarily mean good environmental outcomes and that is why we as a government will look at every proposal on its merits and will seek to implement a policy that does deliver direct action without tying everybody up in green tape.